The Road Not Taken

For some reason, out of the blue this week I found myself singing a song that I haven’t sung in over 2 decades. I learned the song “The Road Not Taken” by Randall Thompson (based on the poem by Robert Frost) as a 7th grader at Friends School of Baltimore. As I sang this stirring song in my kitchen this past week, I realized that more than any of my classmates who stood next to me on the bleachers in the Friends School auditorium performing this song– I have lived this song. In fact, as a baalat teshuva, a newly religious Jew, this song is the story of my life.

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One comment

Thanks! I also learned that poem many times in my school years but never heard the musical rendition. Beautiful.

I just want to add some thoughts about taking the road less travelled. It is true that we use the phrase “baal teshuva” for a Jew who chooses the path of Torah and mitzvot even though s/he was not raised in that way. However, all of us are called upon to do our own teshuva, every day. A life time dedicated to small changes and constant effort, when reflected upon after many years on that path, can also show that we have gone down less travelled ways and gotten far, in a good way, from where we started. I think those kinds of changes are alot of what this blog discusses and I just wanted to suggest that while having utmost admiration and respect for one kind of baal/at teshuva and the tremendous bravery required for that choice of a really new path, we should also think about the quieter, less clearly marked choices many of us try to make, over and over again, every day.

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